Sacramentals
“Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy.“
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1667 and 1670
“Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the sacraments do, but by the Church’s prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. ‘For well-disposed members of the faithful, the liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctifies almost every event of their lives with the divine grace which flows from the Paschal mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. From this source all sacraments and sacramentals draw their power. There is scarcely any proper use of material things which cannot be thus directed toward the sanctification of men and the praise of God.‘“
“Sacramentals“ worn on the body in the Jewish tradition
Tefillin for prayer
Already in the time of Jesus, the Jewish men were using tefillin or “phylacteries“. It is mentioned in the gospel of Saint Matthew, chapter 23. (We will later take a closer look at this passage.) We cannot know whether the shape and usage of these were exactly the same as later on in the Jewish tradition up until today, but in any case the later codified practice is a continuation of the tefillin at the time of Jesus.
Today, tefillin refers to a pair of black leather boxes with a leather strap. The boxes contain parchment scrolls inscribed with four passages from the Hebrew Scriptures – four passages that are the biblical foundation for the use of tefillin (Ex 13: 1-10, Ex 13: 11-16, Dt 6: 4-9, and Dt 11: 13-21). Let us look at the two passages from the book of Deuteronomy:
“‘Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love ADONAI your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart. You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.“
Deuteronomy 6: 4-9
“‘Now if you listen obediently to My mitzvot that I am commanding you today – to love ADONAI your God and to serve Him with all your heart and soul – then I will give rain for your land in its season – the early rain and the late rain – so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. Watch yourselves, so your heart is not deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. Then the anger of ADONAI will be kindled against you, so He will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain and the soil will not yield its produce. Then you will perish quickly from the good land ADONAI is giving you.
Deuteronomy 11: 13-21
‘Therefore you are to set these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul. You are to bind them as a sign on your hand, and as frontlets between your eyes. You are to teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You are to write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land ADONAI swore to give to your fathers, as long as the heavens are above the earth.‘“
A specially trained scribe writes these passages in Hebrew letters on parchments which must come from kosher animals. The leather of the boxes housing the scrolls and the leather of the strap must be kosher as well.
Traditionally, Jewish men after their Bar Mitzvah (over the age of 13) wear the tefillin on their body during their morning prayer or at any time of the day when they wish to perform this mitzvah (commandment) reciting at least a blessing and the Shema Israel (“Hear O Israel…“). The tefillin are not put on when it is Shabbat or any of the Jewish holidays. Today, women sometimes wear them, too, depending on the specific branch of Judaism.
One of the two boxes is placed on the head, and the other one on the left upper arm, so as to make it rest against the heart. There is a certain pattern for winding the strap around one‘s arm and hand: It is wrapped around the upper arm three times, and around the lower arm seven times. There is also a pattern for the hand. The picture below shows the way the strap is bound around the hand in the Sephardic tradition, which is the tradition of the Jews from Spain, Portugal, and parts of the Middle East.
It is quite clear what the purpose of the tefillin is: They are a visible sign supposed to remind one of all the truths contained in the books of Moses, and to bring the Word of God near to one‘s mind (meditation, contemplation), and heart (our will, our desires), and hand (our deeds), specifically during a time of the day dedicated to prayer. They engage the body in prayer, and “bind“ one even physically to God and His commandments. And as the tefillin strap is wrapped around the arm rather tightly, one could even regard it as a form of bodily penance accompanying the prayer, which might explain why this mitzvah is not performed on festive days.
Tallit (prayer shawl) and tzitziyot (threads on one‘s garment)
Many Jewish men observing the Torah wear tzitzit or tassels: These are twisted threads which are often attached to an everyday undergarment, called the tallit katan (“little cloak“). They are also found on the Jewish prayer shawls (tallit gadol, “big cloak“). Here is the biblical background for this practice:
“ADONAI spoke to Moses saying, ‘Speak to Bnei-Yisrael. Say to them that they are to make for themselves tzitzit on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and they are to put a blue cord on each tzitzit. It will be your own tzitzit – so whenever you look at them, you will remember all the mitzvot of ADONAI and do them and not go spying out after your own hearts and your own eyes, prostituting yourselves. This way you will remember and obey all My mitzvot and you will be holy to your God. I am ADONAI your God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am ADONAI your God.‘“
Numbers 15: 38-41
“You are to make for yourself twisted threads on the four corners of your garment in which you cover yourself.“
Deuteronomy 22: 12
While tefillin are only used during a time of prayer, tzitzit on your garments stay with you the whole day, wherever you go, sit, or stand. In the time of Jesus men would wear a seamlessly woven garment, the tunic, and then an outer garment as a cloak above it. Back in those days, the tzitzit were attached to the four corners of this cloak.
There are several gospel passages talking about people touching “the fringe“ of Jesus‘ garment to be healed (cf. Mt 9: 20; Mt 14: 36; Mk 6: 56; Lk 8: 44). When they touched the hem of his outer cloak, they touched the tzitzit:
“And they brought to Him all those who were in bad shape and kept begging Him that they might just touch the tzitzit of His garment – and all who touched it were cured.“
Matthew 14: 35-36
Today, because people dress differently than in the Middle East during biblical times, tzitzit are found on the prayer shawl which is used as a cloak covering men during prayer, but also the men often wear an undergarment – a shirt – with tzitzit, so that they are present on their body even beyond the time of prayer, when they eat or work. Another method is to clip them to the trousers. These little threads are to be visual reminders to stay faithful to God and to keep His commandments.
As Jesus warns his disciples several times of the hypocrisy of some of the Pharisees of his day, he mentions on one occasion how they use – or rather misuse – the tefillin and tzitzit to put up an outward show for others. A “hypocrite“ is etymologically a “stage actor“, a “pretender“.
“All their works they do to be noticed by men. They make their tefillin wide and their tzitziyot long. They love the place of honor at feasts, the beast seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called rabbi by men.“
Matthew 23: 5-7; 23; 27-28
“You tithe mint and dill and cumin, yet you have neglected the weightier matters of Torah – justice and mercy and faithfulness. It is necessary to do these things without neglecting the others.“
“For you are like white-washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men‘s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, you appear righteous to men on the outside, but are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.“
An interesting detail is that God commanded the people of Israel through Moses to have one blue cord among the threads of every corner. In the Old Testament blue is the color associated with divinity, royalty and the worship of God as performed by the Levitical priests.
The colors “blue, purple, and scarlet“ play a prominent role in the design of the utensils for the Tent of Meeting and the priestly garments. For example, the Ark of the Covenant housing the Tablets of the Covenant, the Manna and the rod of Aaron, was to be covered with a blue cloth. For that very reason we see the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant, covered with a blue mantle or veil on many sacred images.
The high priest‘s robe, which was worn above a white tunic, was “entirely of blue“ (Ex 28: 31), and ephod and breastplate on top of the robe were joined together with “a blue thread“ (Ex 28: 28). This correspondence between the priestly garb and the blue tzitzit to be worn by everyone sounds like a hint at the common priesthood of all members of the “holy nation“, being altogether a “royal priesthood“ (cf. 1 Peter 2: 9).
Sacramentals worn on the body in the Catholic tradition
Prayer ropes
A kind of precursor to the Most Holy Rosary with its beads on a string are prayer ropes which are still used by Eastern Rite (Byzantine) Catholics. These are ropes with knots for counting short invocations and “arrow prayers“ like the so-called Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners“).
Their origin dates back to the Desert Fathers in Egypt, to men like Saint Anthony the Great and Saint Pachomius the Great.
The knots of these ropes are complexely woven in a cross-shaped pattern. This interwoven sign of the cross keeps the devil away, according to a story associated with Saint Anthony the Great’s Kyrie eleison ropes. Some of these prayer ropes have 33 knots (for Jesus‘ 33 years on earth), others 50 or 100. Today, they are usually made of wool from sheep.
I guess, one could make one’s own prayer rope with simple knots, and if the rope is long enough, it could easily be wrapped around one‘s arms or one‘s entire body during prayer (even while praying other prayers, not using the knots), more or less tightly, or in the case of a shorter rope at least around one‘s wrist and hand. (The latter is something one can also do with Rosaries.) Quite similar to the leather straps of the tefillin… And the beautiful thing is that this can remind us of and connect us with Jesus‘ Passion when he was bound.
“Then the band of soldiers, with the captain and the officers of the Judeans, seized Yeshua and tied Him up.“
John 18: 12
By the way, Jesus died on the cross exactly at the hour of one of the three daily Jewish prayers: the afternoon or minchah prayer at 3 p.m. (The Jewish morning and evening prayer are called shacharit and ma’ariv.) And minchah, the name given to the afternoon prayer, is in fact a word used in the Hebrew Scriptures for denoting “offering, sacrifice, gift“.
This word appears for the first time when the offerings of Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve, are described – the very first offerings of worship to God we read of in Sacred Scripture. “Present“ or “gift“ is the primary meaning of “minchah“. Besides, the bread offering in the Temple – an offering of unleavened bread alongside a libation of wine, a gift of “thanksgiving“ to God – is termed minchah in Sacred Scripture. It is one of the various sacrifices prescibed in the law of Moses – the one about which God says through the prophet Malachi:
“‘For from sunrise to its setting My Name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to My Name with a pure grain offering, for My Name will be great among the nations‘, says ADONAI-Tzva‘ot.“
Malachi 1: 11
The Greek word eukharistia, Eucharist, is simply a translation of minchah: It means thanksgiving.
But back to the prayer ropes: Some of them, often made by monks who know all about the special technique for tying the knots, come with a tassel, with tzitzit at the end… Tradition has it that these are meant for wiping away one‘s tears of penance.
The ancient rope for the Jesus Prayer reminds me of the modern-day Divine Mercy chaplet. There are striking similarities, as both invoke the mercy of God for us sinners. So if one created a prayer rope with 50 knots, one could pray with it both the Jesus Prayer and the Divine Mercy chaplet.
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.“ (ancient Jesus Prayer)
“Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.“ (Divine Mercy chaplet)
Scapulars (and medals)
There are eighteen different scapulars approved by the Church, the most famous being the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel which Saint Simon Stock received from the Blessed Virgin in a vision in the year 1251. In her memoirs, Sister Lucia, one of the seers of Fatima, stated that the Blessed Virgin told her that “the Rosary and the Scapular are inseparable“.
A devotional scapular consists of two small rectangular pieces of cloth with sacred images (usually of Jesus and Mary) on them which are joined together by two bands of cloth. One piece of cloth is worn on the chest, the other on the back. It is derived from the monastic scapular, a cloth hanging from the shoulders of monks, often up to the knees, which has been used since the 7th century and the founding of Western monasticism by Saint Benedict of Nursia. The Latin word scapulare comes from the word for “shoulder“ (scapula).
Scapulars are worn under one‘s garment. They follow the same line of thought as the Jewish tallit and the tzitzit: It is a blessed piece of cloth touching our body throughout every moment, thereby reminding us of our covenant with God. Usually a specific devotional practice is associated with the wearing of a scapular as well as promises – in the case of the Brown Scapular nothing less but the promise of the special protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary in life and death.
In order to put on a scapular, one needs a priest and His blessing. Besides scapulars there are blessed medals with images of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph or another saint that one can wear around one‘s neck.
“The night is almost gone and the day is near, so let us put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. (…) put on the Lord Messiah Yeshua (…).“
Romans 13: 12-14
“Therefore, as God‘s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves in tender compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience – bearing with one another and forgiving each other, if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord pardoned you, so also you must pardon others. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfect harmony. Let the shalom of Messiah rule in your hearts – to this shalom you were surely called in one body. Also be thankful. Let the word of Messiah dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Yeshua, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.“
Colossians 3: 12-17
Cords
Cords, sashes, or cinctures worn around the waist are part of the dress of both the Levitical priests of the Old Testament and the Catholic priests of the New Covenant. They are also included in the garb of monks, and most of the time their color is white symbolizing purity and holiness.
A Catholic priest prays the following prayer while girding himself with the cincture:
“Gird me, O Lord, with the cincture of purity and quench in me the fire of concupiscence, that the virtue of continence and chastity may remain in me.“
One of the prayers of a Catholic priest while vesting
I will present here one of several examples of cords for laypeople: If someone struggles with chastity, wishes to intensify his or her devotion to Saint Joseph to take refuge under his protection, or suffers from physical ailments, there is the White Cord of Saint Joseph, approved by the Church.
In the year 1638, Sister Elizabeth of the Order of Saint Augustine in Antwerp, Belgium, was very ill and in a lot of pain. She prayed to Saint Joseph for being cured and in honor of him put a blessed white cord around herself. Her health was restored. The devotion quickly spread, especially for curing the sick in the hospitals.
The cord is to be of white cotton, and at one of its ends it has seven knots in remembrance of the Seven Joys and Seven Sorrows of Saint Joseph. The Seven Joys and Seven Sorrows of Saint Joseph? Glad you asked:
“Seven Joys of Saint Joseph: 1) the annuncation to Saint Joseph; 2) the birth of the Savior of mankind; 3) the Holy Name of Jesus; 4) the salvation of mankind; 5) the toppling of the idols; 6) family life at Nazareth; 7) the finding of Jesus in the Temple.“
“Seven Sorrows of Saint Joseph: 1) Joseph resolves to leave Mary; 2) the poverty of Jesus‘ birth; 3) the circumcision of Christ; 4) Simeon‘s prophecy; 5) the flight into Egypt; 6) the perilous return from exile; 7) the loss of Jesus in Jerusalem.“
The special graces attached to wearing the White Cord of Saint Joseph are the purity of soul, the grace of chastity, final perseverance, and Saint Joseph‘s assistance at the hour of death. Those wearing the cord are obliged to say seven Gloria prayers every day in honor of Saint Joseph and / or to recite a specific invocation of Saint Joseph, the Father of fathers, for the graces of a “spotless mind, pure heart and chaste body“.
The White Cord of Saint Joseph can be worn around the waist for the virtue of chastity, or as a shoulder sash for the virtue of obedience.
“A rich life of piety“
We could keep talking about devotional sacramentals day and night, couldn‘t we? This article cannot be exhaustive. We skipped, for example, the Jewish men’s kippah and the Catholic women‘s prayer veil.
Yet I am sure you noticed that there is a certain continuity between the Jewish and the Catholic practices of sacred signs worn on our bodies. One that is not the least surprising, of course. The root of all these Jewish and Catholic sacred signs is this instruction of God in the book of Deuteronomy, already quoted above:
“These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart. You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.“
Deuteronomy 6: 6-9
And one more thing is to be said in closing this:
“As Catholics, we are free to cultivate a rich life of piety, drawing from the treasures of many lands and many ages.”
Catholic theologian Scott Hahn